As an avowed atheist living among a sea of believers (both locally and on the Internet), I have spent a lot of time discussing my beliefs (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The purpose of this blog is not to prove the non-existence of God or "de-convert" anybody from their faith, but simply to preserve some of these discussions and allow me to flesh them out through the process of writing them down, as well as to share them with anybody who might be interested in reading them.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Is America a Christian Nation Founded on Judaeo-Christian Values?

Time
and again, when ostensibly devout Christians here in America want to
exercise their right to discriminate against those who do not share
their beliefs, they trot out the well-worn nostrum that “America is a
Christian nation” or “America was founded on Judaeo-Christian values” as
a justification. This “foundation on Judaeo-Christian values” bit is so
important, in fact, that some people even think its appropriate to put
large stone monuments commemorating the Ten Commandments in courthouses.

But was America or its laws actually founded on Judaeo-Christian values (to the exclusion, presumably, of all other values)?

So, given the fact that the founders certainly could
have specifically stated that America was a Christian nation founded on
Judaeo-Christian values and instead chose to state that would be no
official state religion, it certainly seems as though the
founders at least didn’t think that their new country was a Christian
nation founded on Judaeo-Christian values. But maybe that was just an
oversight on their part.

Well, what about Article Six of the very same Constitution, which states in part:

[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Again, the founders could
have stated that only good, God-fearing Christians would be eligible to
serve in public office, but instead chose to say that it essentially
didn’t matter what religion (if any) somebody belonged to. Still, maybe
they just assumed that all Americans would be Christians and this
was to prevent bickering between, say, Catholics and Protestants. Hey —
it’s possible, right?

And then, of course, we have the famous “Separation of Church and State” as described by Thomas Jefferson:

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

But
surely Thomas Jefferson was an outlier, right? One wacky “deist” in a
sea of devout Christians, obviously. Surely the rest of the founders and
early Americans were confident that America was, first and foremost, a
Christian nation and were not afraid to announce this fact openly,
right? Well, not according to the Treaty of Tripoli, which was submitted to the Senate by President John Adams, received unanimous ratification from the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797, and states in part:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;
as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion,
or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims]; and as the said States never
entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation,
it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious
opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing
between the two countries.

But,
hey — maybe they were just lying for the sake of getting the treaty
done. Not that lying is exactly a “Christian” value, mind you, but
that’s politics for you.

OK,
so depending on your point of view, it’s either blindingly obvious that
the founders of this great country did not think that America was
founded on Judaeo-Christian values or else it’s blindingly obvious that
none of the facts provided above have anything whatsoever to do with the
issue and can be safely ignored (“Nothing to see here, folks, move
along”). Fine. For those in the latter camp, however, how about we
explore exactly what these supposed “Judaeo-Christian values” actually are and see if they do, in fact, form the foundation of our laws.

First up, of course, is the Ten Commandments,
which is seen by many American Christians to be the foundation of U.S.
law, to the extent that some would erect statues of the 10 Commandments
right in the lobby of courthouses, as mentioned earlier. There are
various versions, but here’s the most common list:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. [Hmmmm…
I don’t see that enshrined anywhere in the Constitution or other laws
of the United States. In fact, as mentioned above, the First Amendment
of the Constitution specifically says that “Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof.” You’d think that if America were indeed founded on
Judaeo-Christian values the first and arguably most important
commandment would be called out somewhere, right? Interesting…]

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. [Hmmmm…
Again, I don’t see anything about this mentioned anywhere in the
Constitution or other laws of the United States. And it’s kinda ironic
that somebody would fight to erect a large graven image of the 10
Commandments in front of a court of law, doncha think?]

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. [Nope,
still not seeing it. One could argue, by the way, that putting “In God
We Trust” on our money is a direct violation of this commandment.
There’s a reason why observant Jews write “G-D” instead of “God”. Ah,
well… moving on!]

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [Ah,
yes — this must be why we have all those laws prohibiting football
games and NASCAR races on Sundays. Oh wait, never mind. As an aside, did
anybody else find it hilarious when, after 9/11, everybody started
singing “God Bless America” at sporting events held on Sundays? Just me,
huh? OK, fine.]

Honour thy father and thy mother. [You know, the Old Testament was really explicit about this one. In fact, Deuteronomy 21:18-21 specifically states that if you have a disobedient child, you need to take them outside and have them stoned to death.
Gotta love those old time family values! Regardless, I’m not aware of
anything in the Constitution or other laws of the land dealing with
this. ]

Thou shalt not kill. [Bingo! We have a winner! This one is definitely in the Constitution. Isn’t it? OK, so it actually isn’t. We do have the nifty Second Amendment right to bear arms, though, so I guess it’s OK to kill in some
circumstances. But, what the heck — let’s give this one to them, since
there are plenty of English common law statutes dating back hundreds of
years that prohibit murder.]

Thou shalt not commit adultery. [Um,
yeah. Sorry, no laws against adultery. Which is good, I suppose, since
most of the politicians would be in jail. Remember back in 2012 and the
only Republican running for president that hadn’t had more than one wife
was the Mormon? Good times, good times.]

Thou shalt not steal. [Again,
not in the Constitution, but plenty of examples from English common
law. So we’ll give it to the Christians. That’s what, 2 out of 8 so far?
Hmmmm… In other news, it’s a darn good thing that “steal” doesn’t
include manipulating the tax code to avoid paying ones fair share of
taxes to contribute to the common good, right? I mean, am I right, or am
I right?]

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.[Not
really sure about this one, to be honest. Nothing in the Constitution
(again), but plenty of laws regarding perjury in a court of law. That
probably counts, so that makes 3 of 9 so far. w00t!]

Thou shalt not covet (thy neighbor’s house, wife, servants, animals, or anything else).[OK, I’m going to go out on a limb here and call this commandment positively un-American on its face. I mean coveting your neighbor’s, well, everything,is what capitalism is all about and is what makes this country so great in the first place, capische? Well, maybe not quite, but there still ain’t any laws against it, and that’s a fact!]

OK,
so the final tally from the Ten Commandments is a pretty poor showing
of only 3 out of 10. Maybe. Not looking so good for this myth so far,
but let’s see what a selection of values described in the New Testament can tell us:

And so on and so forth. Yes, one could try to abstract the “Judaeo-Christian values”
into some sort of core beliefs like “treat individuals with respect” or
something, but that’s just a modern gloss on what the scriptures that
form the basis of Judaeo-Christian values actually state.

And
please, don’t even get me started on all the other Biblical laws that
most modern-day Christians wholly write off as not applicable. I mean,
it’s vitally important that gay people not be allowed to marry since the
Bible says that homosexuality is wrong, but divorce? Eating shrimp?
Owning slaves (OK, sorry, that one actually was in the Constitution to start with until the 14th Amendment came along…)